Professor David Peimer
The Merchant of Venice in Film, Part 2
Summary
Professor David Peimer continues his talk about how the image of Shylock, and therefore the image of the Jew, is portrayed in “The Merchant of Venice” in all of its various film productions through history. Part 2 of 2.
Professor David Peimer
David Peimer is a Professor of Literature, Film and Theatre in the UK. He has worked for the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, New York University (Global Division) and was a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University. Born in South Africa, David has won numerous awards for playwriting and directing in New York, UK, Berlin, EU Parliament (Brussels), Athens, Budapest, Zululand and more. He has most recently directed Dame Janet Suzman in his own play, Joanna’s Story, at London Jewish Book Week. He has published widely with books including: Armed Response: Plays from South Africa, the digital book, Theatre in the Camps. He is on the board of the Pinter Centre (London), and has been involved with the Mandela Foundation, Vaclav Havel Foundation and directed a range of plays at Mr Havel’s Prague theatre.
Absolutely, I mean, as we see here, Michael Radford discussing with Pacino, Pacino discussing with Jeremy Irons, and Pacino saying the three of them would talk quite a bit to get an understanding of the scene before going into playing it. So without a doubt, the director and the main actors we definitely discussed, the only time I ever read was Coppola talking about directing Brando in “The Godfather” where he never gave him a single direction at all. And Kaza directing Brando in “Streetcar” when he was very young, obviously Brando was very young, also never gave him a direction. They respected the brilliance of the talent and the intelligence. I haven’t read of any other director actor who has just let the actor sort of do whatever.